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worm: n. [from tapeworm in John
Brunner's novel The Shockwave Rider, via XEROX PARC]
A program that propagates itself over a network, reproducing itself as it
goes. Compare virus. Nowadays the term has
negative connotations, as it is assumed that only
crackers write worms. Perhaps the best-known
example was Robert T. Morris's Great Worm of 1988, a
‘benign’ one that got out of control and hogged hundreds of
Suns and VAXen across the U.S. See also cracker,
RTM, Trojan horse,
ice.
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